The extremist group had occupied Manbij, near the Turkish border, since 2014, but have finally been driven out by the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), with support from USA air strikes.
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The last remaining ISIS commanders and fighters holed up in the city, near the Syrian/Turkish border, had been using civilians as human shields as they desperately tried to cling on to control.
Men are seen cutting their beards and women setting fire to niqabs as they celebrate in the streets.
Jubilation broke out in many neighborhoods after ISIS militants lost control of Manbij to USA -backed rebels, and the Pentagon said the center of the city was liberated.
It was a celebration galore in the “war torn” Syrian city of Manbij on Friday after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) drove jihadists under the auspices of Islamic States (ISIS) from the city.
SDF forces captured Manbij on August 6 but continued to battle pockets of jihadi resistance there.
Defeating the militants there essentially blocks a supply route ISIS has between its heartland of Raqqa and Turkey.
U.S. military officials said that during the fighting, the coalition launched 680 airstrikes destroying more than 680 Islamic State fighting positions.
US-backed forces said today that some of the civilians were able to escape while others were freed.
“I think yes the objective of the Syrian Democratic Forces is to liberate as much areas as possible from the territories of Daesh [ISIS]”, French fighter of the SDF, nicknamed Soran, told ARA News on Sunday. Along with the liberation of Manbij, more than 2,000 hostages were released, that the SDF and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights report, were used as “human shields”.
The Britain-based Observatory also reported that several hundred of the civilians taken from Manbij were no longer being held by IS.
The third major party to the five-year-old conflict, the extremist Islamic State, is seeking to establish an Islamist “caliphate” in large swaths of Syria and neighboring Iraq. “It has lost the centre of Manbij, it has lost control of Manbij”, he said. Some may have gone to the “IS” held frontier town of Jarabulus. Tens of thousands of people lived in Manbij before the assault started in May.
Germany’s foreign minister said it may be necessary for Germany, the U.S., Russian Federation and the United Nations to form an “air bridge” to get supplies to Aleppo’s residents.
USA officials have said that after Manbij, the coalition’s intention is to move on Raqqa.
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Already, there has been a surge in attacks-either claimed or inspired by Islamic State-in several countries that are part of the USA -led global coalition fighting the extremist group in the Middle East.
